Most Canadians Believe that (New) Minorities are “Coddled” by Government: Poll

Two posts today!

This was published in the Globe and Mail today. And yeah, I agree with this too, and I’m non-white. It makes people like me feel out of place. I’m not seen by many white Canadians as “Canadian”, yet I don’t “fit in” with so-called “minorities” because my family is:

• Not all that “old country” (most Hong Kong Canadians aren’t, anyway…at least not compared to lots of South Asian communities in Canada)
• Not really “marginalized” (hey, I’m a suburban raised girl who went to private school, took piano and skating lessons, went to summer camp and Brownies/Guides. How is that MARGINALIZED/NOT PRIVILEGED?)

I can’t be alone. There are lots of people like me, and the government, media, etc, never talk about it. They only stick to so-called “liberal” white people who openly embrace differences, new Canadians who clamour for acceptance (and both these groups criticize people like me who have embraced “mainstream” culture, even if this “mainstream” culture was integrated into the “old country” culture for decades, such as say, wearing a white wedding gown (white is the traditional colour of mourning in China, yet the vast majority of Hong Kong and Singapore brides will wear white)) and well, white supremacists/good ol’ boys (not to be confused with the Old Boys Network….VERY DIFFERENT, PEOPLE. VERY, VERY DIFFERENT.)

The media don’t understand or at least, care to understand that there are people who just don’t care. There are people out there who have no issues with so-called “mainstream” culture, yet we are silenced by radicals and people who have a so-called “open mind.” Banning holiday concerts that mention Christmas (yet embracing other religions who have some sort of celebration around the same time of year) is wrong, IMHO. Telling your kid that he or she shouldn’t have done this or that because the kid isn’t from of that religion or culture (which happens to be the “mainstream”) isn’t right either. And for some reason, this happens only in certain parts of Toronto. There were lots of kids at my high school who were not white Protestants, yet no parent had ever criticized service attendance, curriculum, etc…Maybe parents who pay $20+K ($15K when I was there) are just more open-minded or don’t care?

I guess my issue is this:  Once you accommodate, people expect that certain cultures behave that way.  It leads to more issues of ignorance.  Also, then other groups will start asking to be accommodated.  I’m sorry, but what happened to “when in Rome, do as the Romans”?

Can’t wait to see what they say over at Racialicious and Restructure. They probably WON’T agree with me. Most non-white activists don’t.

What exactly is a Banana?

Racialicious has an interesting post on Bananas today.  And I don’t mean the fruit. I mean people who are “yellow on the outside, white inside.”  But is there only one kind of Banana?  Or are there several?  Can a FOB (is this term even accurate anymore?  Shouldn’t it be FOP or Fresh off the Plane?) be a Banana?  I mean, most Hong Kongers and Koreans, at least those who live in a western country have had some training in western classical music (usually in the form of piano or violin).  Would even the most old country of Hong Kongers or Koreans there be at least a little banana?  Or is classical music no longer a western “thing”?  After all, most white/multigeneration Canadians/Americans (dont’ know about Aussies, Kiwis or Brits) don’t send their kids to piano at a young age.  In fact, the only white kids I know who started piano at say, age 5 or younger are of Eastern European descent (and no more than third generation). Do you have to date a white person?  Take certain courses? Play hockey, if you’re Canadian?  What about all those Hong Kong Canadians who not only send their children to old line private schools, but also seek membership at country clubs that would have blackballed them decades ago?  Maybe a better term for them is YASP (“Yellow” Anglo-Saxon Protestant…of course, they aren’t ethnically Anglo-Saxon, but we’re talking about a cultural perspective here.  I mean, Grace Kelly was Irish Catholic, so she wasn’t WASP either.)

I’d say I’m a Banana because:

• Barely read/write Chinese (I speak fluent Cantonese though…..pretty much accentless, because my grandmother took care of me when I was little, and I learned to talk from here)
• I don’t really have the baby voice/Hong Kong mall rat voice that is really common with women under 40, though I sometimes speak with the equally bad “valley girl” mall rat voice (like, I’m soooooo sorry, okay?)
• Went to a university that the so-called “majority” sees as being “very white” (ummm, no, the school is NOT “very” white, at least not compared to smaller schools.  It’s only “very white” compared to places like the University of Toronto, UBC and Waterloo.)
• Took lots of drama and social science courses rather than sciences or even business (I was one of two Asian students in my high school drama classes (out of a class of between 15 and 20) and probably the only one in my year who actually majored in the subject in university.
• Didn’t highlight my hair in high school (the majority of the Chinese kids who highlighted their hair at my high school were foreign students or recent immigrants).
• Didn’t (and still don’t) follow Cantopop bands or HK movie stars…unless you count the few days when the Edison Chen scandal hit the news EVERYWHERE
• My boyfriend isn’t Asian
• I don’t play badminton (the badminton teams at my high school were OVERWHELMINGLY Chinese…I think there was only like one white girl on the team)
• I’m not obsessed with big brand names
• I didn’t live in an area that is “seen” as a Chinese suburb (i.e. Markham, Ontario)
• Most of my closer friends aren’t Chinese
• I do volunteer work for non-ethnic-specific organizations

But the following are kind of questionable:

• I played piano from ages 4 to 17
• I actually SPEAK Cantonese
• I’m fairly familiar with Chinese (or at least Hong Kong) culture
• A manicurist in Hong Kong didn’t believe that I was CBC – she thought that I went to school abroad at a young age (i.e. high school) – probably because of my lack of an accent

I also don’t understand why some people are so critical of the banana (or Oreo, apple, coconut, etc) identity.  A person’s identity is what he/she chooses! And no, I don’t think it’s derogatory, as one of the commentators has indicated.  It’s just part of me.